The Australian Explorers - Their Labours, Perils, and Achievements, by George Grimm (1833 - 1897).

"The Story of the Exploration of Australia is one which we cannot willingly let die. There are many reasons for keeping alive the remembrance of such heroic deeds. It is due to the memory of those men who took their lives in their hands, and, in many cases, laid their bones in the desert; it is an act of gratitude on our part, who have entered on their labours; and it is a kind of information indispensable to every Australian who desires to know the history of his country." (from the Author's Preface)

IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

Magic Window:

The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!START of recording (Intro):

"Chapter [number] of The Australian Explorers - Their Labours, Perils, and Achievements. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"

I usually do my recording at dawn on Saturdays and Sundays, the household being quietest at those hours, then edit later those days, or after work during the week. Since our kids are on school holidays at the moment, I may consider an early morning weekday recording or two for the next fortnight though, this being a history rather than something with out-there voice characterisations. (The cat gave me such strange looks when I was voicing Cranky Jack (On Our Selection) and One-eyed Bogan (Send Round The Hat)). I just say this so you know why it'll probably be next weekend at the earliest before the first instalment gets uploaded.

Great stuff! And a nice picture of Wattamolla Lagoon. Did you work out where Tom Thumb's Inlet was - I assume the entrance to Illawara Lake?

I have three possible corrections, though at this point I should ask if you want to be word perfect or are happy with slight misreadings. All of the following may fall into the trivial category and might well be left standing. I usually read the text while I am PLing (otherwise I lose concentration), so I will notice these kinds of errors, but I could only point them out when they affect the sense. Please let me know what you think.

1:42 - 'held on his voyage without pause' - 'voyage' should be 'course'
14:36 - 'up to the time of this exploration' - 'exploration' should be 'expedition'
30:10 - 'he played an important part -> should be 'prominent part'